This comparative study of education in Argentina and France continues research on the professional pathways of PhDs belonging to different disciplinary fields. It was begun in 2008 and currently has expanded to three new French universities. This line of research was established by Aparicio in 1995 with undergraduate students, and more recently has been applied to graduate students, taking into account the proliferation of graduate programs and the hypothetical consequences on workplace insertion that this new reality might imply. Our objective is to analyze both the current position of PhDs and the expectations for their professional futures within a contextual/structural framework. Social science PhDs are not always able to be absorbed in the scientific and/or business systems, especially in developed countries where the number of PhDs produces a “plafond” effect. Our theoretical framework focuses on two issues: a) professionalization and workplace insertion and b) identity. Our methodology is qualitative (hierarchical evocation and interviews). The results bring to light hidden aspects of a reality that is central to political discourse and reveal the “reasons” PhDs give for their professional positions and expectations. They also portray differences according to discipline between Argentine and French individuals and impressions of values privileged and/or “imposed” by the macro national level. Similarities and differences lead to high institutional, disciplinary and national homogeneity. The interplay of these three levels is interpreted in light of Aparicio’s theory (2015 a and b), that is, with a new way of reading social data from a systemic self-sustained movement sui generis.

Key words: PhD – pathways – workplace – identity – professionalization